“Helplessness and anger make for predictable behavior: Children are certain to shove each other and pull hair, teenagers will call each other names and cry, and grown women who are sisters will say words so cruel that each syllable will take on the form of a snake, although such a snake often circles in on itself to eat its own tail once the words are said aloud.”

American novelist and young-adult and children's writer

Alice Hoffman is an American novelist and writer of young-adult and children's fiction. She is best known for her 1995 novel Practical Magic. Her work often belongs to magic realism, blending everyday life with magic, irony, and unconventional romances and relationships. Practical Magic was adapted into a film in 1998 and later grew into a media franchise.